Be it the Symphony, a concert at the Auburn Event Center, an acoustic evening at the Club Car or rockin' out at the California Club, Auburn needs to support live music. Arts are a key part of a vital community, and live music is a most important part of those arts, regardless of genre, live music opens provides so much. If support is not there, neither will be the performances. Check out the Journal calendar - or check out our other terrific paper that is found for free all over the place - on any given weekend there are numerous options to choose from! Support Local Music! & Keep Smilin'

Can I say something at this point? I have thought about this a lot lately because up here in Colfax we tried valiantly for a year to get up a new Contra Dance group, but in the end we decided to abandon the idea because only 10 people would show-up (no offense to you 10 people!). My daughter and I both played in the symphony this last concert, so I am saying this from the inside and outside of the situation.

I think our community has too many things going on and people are spread pretty thin. I was telling my daughter that when I was growing up here we hardly had anything going on as far as live music, plays, art shows, poetry readings, church concerts, events, fundraisers, etc., etc. AND there are also more sports leagues than ever. And don't forget the school concerts and plays. Now almost everyday has something going on. We all can only do so much. Sometimes I find my family and I are out every night of the week either attending something or performing in something. I am to the point now where I just want to sit home and just enjoy being together as a family playing cards or taking walks. So it is wonderful that we have so many talented and creative people in our community, but I think you can also have the problem of over-saturation of the entertainment market.

I know this offers no solution, but it is what I think is possibly going on out there.

And one more question in case anyone out there reading this is "in the know." What is the percentage of symphony audience members are under, say, 50 versus those over 50? Is the audience for a straight-ahead classic symphony program aging? We know it is. At what point does a symphony group do more "pops" and maybe even some...dare I say...electronica and pop music that uses symphonic back-up to gain a younger audience? This will make the "purists" out there cough, but people my age (40's) would love to hear things like Aerosmith's "Dream On" done with a full orchestra and Eric Carmen's "All By Myself." Here is Metallica performing with the San Francisco symphony. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziThYl6B2vw Even if you don't like rock music, this is moving and powerful.

You make a good point, Gail. We used to try to get our kids to go to the Kinderconcerts- after all we do have a music teacher in the family- even offered them money. No way. Instead we took them down to UC Davis where they had wonderful family concerts with lively, unusual performers perfectly suited toward the young and the restless. I like your idea of expanding the repertoire too. I love going to the sing-along Messiah, but sadly that is the only performance I have made a point of attending. It's just like you say - we can only do so much.

On the flip side, I sing in the Sierra Community chorus and our 6 December performances are almost sold out already. We do mostly pops type stuff and have established a faithful clientele - yes mostly over 50, but they have the time and the money.

We went to the symphony on Saturday night and made it a date

night-dinner at a local restaurant before. It was a great evening.

I do like the idea of more modern music. That would be a lot

of fun. Do you think the Maestro would support it?

Some good points gail, and for the record I sooo appreciate and enjoy the music you and your family share so often, I wish I had a smidgen of your musical genes & I would be performing vs watching and trying to present. While there are a lot of options, there are also a lot of different people and groups out there that could easily support the variety we have! - Nevada County venues seem to do much better in getting support for live music than does Auburn. Even with our centralized location, shows will do better there than here. Be it symphonic music (their Music in the Mountains I understand does real well) or Americana (Center for the Arts, Coopers, Miners Foundry etc...) It was quite interesting, more tickets were sold for a recent Auburn Mumbo Gumbo show in Nevada County than in Auburn! - I do not think the Auburn folks are heading out of town to go to Symphony music, they probably just don't go out! I want to encourage folks to rethink entertainment, stay local & support local entertainment - I also hope the community and its agency's provide a positive and inviting environment that encourages people to come and enjoy an evening of entertainment in our area! If Auburn can build a reputation as a fun place to come & enjoy an evening of food, music & drink all will benefit as people from Colfax, Newcastle, Loomis etc.. will come an open their ears and wallets perpetuation that win-win! But if we have a reputation as not so welcoming of an area to visit......

Thanks for the comments folks. I was just throwing an idea out there.

As for Mr. Goodwin and modern music...I will make no comment. ;-)

Michael Goodwin is an ego-manic. He'd take the credit for himself if he was directing a group of sewer rats. Let him give some credit to the people who have talent, real talent, who don't need that smug man taking credit for everything!

Wow, Sara, obviously you either don't hang around with musicians much or you are one.

But I thought about Jayber's comment that the Sierra Chorus concerts are very well attended. Why is that? Maybe because all of the members are part of the community, probably not professional musicians so they bring with them a group of family and friends to the concert. The Auburn Symphony is made up of many professional and semi-professional musicians from out of the area. Generally those people don't bring any friends or family to the concerts. So the symphony is banking on true lovers of classical music to attend and not so much people who are there to see Uncle Bob or Auntie Jayber in a concert.

Maybe I am totally off here...anyone still reading this thread?

No!

Hey Gail. I guess it's just you and me. Our chorus fills six performances. The theatre seats 450 people. You are right that some of our family members attend, but that really doesn't account for the numbers (at $25 per seat, it costs too much to come if you're not really into it.) We have lots of retirees who make it a tradition to come to our concerts. We sold $20,000 in tickets within the first 3 hours that they went on sale. We market heavily to the Lincoln Hills and Sun City area.